New RoboCop compares violence level to Verhoeven's 'over-the-top' original

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Paul Verhoeven’s 1987 sci-fi classic RoboCop is revered for a lot of reasons, one of which is the director’s wild take on violence, which gave the film a very unique look. So how will the remake stack up?

Collider had a chance to talk to Joel Kinnaman (Alex Murphy/RoboCop) about the modern-day spin on the flick, and he elaborated on how new director Jose Padilha’s style vastly differs from Verhoeven's. Instead of the “over-the-top” '80s violence we’re used to, Kinnaman likened the remake to the visual style of Christopher Nolan’s The Dark Knight.

Here’s an excerpt:

“I didn’t really know that The Dark Knight was PG-13 as well, I didn’t know what you could get away with with PG-13. You know I haven’t been in the States that long, I haven’t done that many films on the US market. It was the first thing that popped out of my mind, but after seeing what we got away with with PG-13 that battle became quite irrelevant. And the original RoboCop by Verhoeven, he has a very specific idea when it comes to violence and how you portray violence. I mean, he grew up in the whirlpool of WWII and was very affected by that, and he had this idea that when you treat violence way over the top it becomes comedic.

The original RoboCop was X-rated and then they had to cut it down so it became R-rated and Verhoeven claimed that actually made the movie more violent, because it’s what you don’t see that actually scares you. And the violence of the of the original RoboCop was so much aligned with Verhoeven’s cinematic tone and his comedic tone, and our film is carrying Jose’s tone which he’s a completely different filmmaker, so the violence that we have in our movie completely makes sense in terms of who Jose is.”

Hmm. OK, we’re interested. Though we’ve seen more than a few sacrifices in recent years when it comes to the PG-13 vs. R battle, Kinnaman’s comments give us some hope. But comparing yourself to The Dark Knight and actually hitting that vibe are very different things. Regardless, it's nice to see they're not trying to ape Verhoeven.